Thanks for all the encouragement, now I just need the rope :)

Every morning when I wake up, I look at my phone to see how late I slept in, and how much of the day I have wasted sleeping, and then just for the fun of it, and in an effort to avoid getting out of bed, i shuffle through my phone to look up my horoscope.  I just thought this one was fitting after my first week of blogging about my future plans. 


You may see something as a good investment that many other people would run from.  That's okay.  This special investment might literally be a business proposition that could offer you the possibility of making money.  On the other hand, the investment might also be a person or a situation that others would tell you to steer clear of, even though you can see merit where others cannot.  Lead with your heart, Sagittarius. Most likely your instincts are correct , and if you invest your time, belief, passion, and energy into what you're considering, it will pay wonderful dividends.  

ATTENTION ALL CLIMBERS

Chances are if I have met you within the last few years of my life you are either someone I go to Haiti with, Haitian, or a climber. I am now writing to ask all of those who climb for a favor.  While Kristen and I were brainstorming on ways to raise money for our efforts in Haiti we began to think about groups that sell things in an effort to give back, and we then began to think of things that are specifically feminine as a way to raise money for Women in Haiti.  Kristen mentioned how so many organizations have sold plastic bracelets just as Lance Armstrong has, and I then began to think women like bracelets, women like headbands, we can start making headbands!  Oh but wait... I don't know how to sew... but that is a minor detail i will tackle in the near future, so then as I was racking my brain trying to come up with something to sell I looked to my wrist which had the answer strapped to it; Climbing rope!  I can make headbands and bracelets out of climbing rope! And considering I spend so much time around climbers, and in climbing gyms, I am hoping that most of my friends and colleagues of the climbing community will be interested in buying.  


So now I get to the point, and will just come out and say it: I need your used climbing rope!  Great idea to make things out of rope, not so great when you have no rope to make things out of.  So this is what I will ask of climbers, if you have an old rope, and you don't know what to do with it, I will take it!  And if you have old rope, and you have plans to make things such as rugs out of it, I ask that you give me a small chunk of your rope.  To be honest I don't need a lot of rope form each person, I just want a variety of styles and colors so not everyone has to but the same thing.  Just think of how many bracelets and headbands I could make out of a mere three feet of rope!  So please I urge you to think about this, and you can e-mail me, or send me a note on facebook to let me know you are interested.  And if you are in the Grand Rapids area (which most of you are) it would be great if you could give your rope to 
Andy De Boer, the owner of Inside Moves, located in Byron Center Michigan.  Andy has already sent me some rope to begin with, and in March will have my first of hopefully many climbing rope accessories for sale.  


Please climbing friends I really need your help, and I can't wait to hear from you!  


http://www.insidemoves.com/

Everyone smiles in the same language

I know most of my close friends will remember this because we were probably watching it together, but does anyone remember that episode of friends where Chandler can't smile in pictures?  He smiles just fine when he is happy, but as soon as someone points a camera at him he bares his teeth and his smile becomes an awkward pained look, like someone is tickling and pinching him at the same time? This was all I could think about the day I learned the word for smile in creole.  


On my last trip to Haiti we spent a lot of time going to Christmas parties.  We had them at the orphanage, at the school for the teachers, and we even go to go to one downtown at a preschool that was run out of Ernst Cassy's mothers house.  On this particular occasion a few of the older kids from the orphanage came with us to help hand out food and toys to the children. At the end of the day we had to sit and wait for all of the parents to come and pick up their preschooler's. When it finally got down to the last child we sat and impatiently waited with a little boy who had received a ball for a gift, and was joyfully playing with it. Ashley as usual had been taking pictures of everything, and everyone around us and Brummaire, one of the older boys who had come along to help, must have noticed that when this little boy posed for a picture he would try as hard as he could to smile, and the smile would come out looking more like he was baring his teeth!  Brummaire thought this was hilarious and began to say over and over Souri! Souri! to the little boy, who would in turn give us a goofy grin and Ashley would take his picture.  Ashley probably took about 20 pictures of this little boy in different poses, and every time Brummaire would exclaim excitedly Souri! and then laugh after every picture!  


Now up to this point, my week in Haiti had been a little disappointing, most of the kids from the orphanage who are normally happy to see us, and want to talk to us were either too busy with school and making money through odd jobs or were pretty much nowhere to be found.   In Brummaire's case he had been around all week, but he had barely said a word to me, and i had hardly seen him smile, let alone laugh! So I am sure this may not seem like a funny story to those who were not there, but besides the fact that the word souri (pronounced sooree) was for ever etched in to my brain, it was a wonderful experience to see my friend Brummaire smile and laugh over such a simple thing.  


Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it.  ~Author Unknown

Alo Zanmi'm!

Hello my friends, and welcome to my first ever blog!  My goal for this blog is to track the progress of my brand new adventure, and first ever business venture.  The other day Kristen and I were having a conversation about how so many entrepreneurs have begun their own businesses in an effort to help those in need.  Needless to say we were talking about Toms in particular, and how smart it was to make shoes to sell, and then promise to give back shoes to kids who need them.  We also talked about what kinds of things we wanted to do when we were in Haiti, and who we wanted to help.  Most of you probably know that over the past few years, thanks to my friend Julie's encouragement, I have been going to Haiti to spend time with, and help my friends at the Good Shepherd Orphanage, located in Carrefour.  Kristen and I agree that it is important to us to help all of the children at the orphanage, but we are especially concerned for the well-being of the teenage girls that live there.  Numbering 5 amongst 50 some male counterparts, these young girls are expected to attend school daily, help cook, clean, and do several hours of laundry per day for all of the men and boys living at the orphanage.  Now don't get my wrong, i do not fear the well being of these women, and I believe that their place at the orphanage is a blessing considering how so many other women live in Haiti, but looking forward I do fear these women's future.

When I was spending time at the Orphanage over Christmas one of the older boys tried to explain to me, in broken English and Haitian Creole that when a Haitian man and woman get married that the woman expects the her husband to beat her, so that she may respect him.  He told me that the man beats the woman several times a day so that she will always make sure that she cooks and cleans and does laundry for him, not to mention take care of their children.  He then proceeded to tell me that he did not like to beat women, and that if I married him, he would not beat me; which of coarse i greatly appreciated hearing, but it just shows me a difference between their culture and ours.

Kristen and I think the best way we can use our talents and resources to make a difference in Haiti is to continue helping at the orphanage, and work towards larger goals such as creating a place for displaced women to come for several kinds of needs.  In posts to come i will explain in great detail our plans to to start an organization, sell headbands, and what Souri Avi means to us.